Lives in Cricket No 20 - Maurice Tompkin

Chapter One Family history and background ‘Countesthorpe, on the whole another depressing industrial village with little to commend it,’ wrote Professor W.G.Hoskins in the Shell Guide to Leicestershire , published in 1970. The village, six miles or so south of Leicester, had good reason to be feeling downcast in early 1919. True, the war was won, but at a substantial cost to the local community. Out of a population of some 1,200 people, 189 men from the village had served, and there would be 49 of them eventually on the war memorial which the Duke of York was to unveil. They were not lacking in brave deeds either, for two men with village connections were awarded the Victoria Cross. In February 1919, the terms of the peace treaty were proving unpalatable to the Germans, and the press were emotively confident that the ‘ entente will forbid the Huns to cross a given line’ when the Germans seemed reluctant to concede East Prussia to Poland. The military were occupying gas and electricity works in Belfast, due to ongoing strikes. The gloom was not helped by the flu epidemic. By the end of February over 500 people in the Leicester area had died of the illness, and eight schools were closed to prevent it spreading. Unemployment too was rising rapidly; the United Kingdom figure of 260,000 at the start of the year had risen to 625,000. It was not all bad news. Nestlé were pleased to announce that there had been a relaxation of a wartime hoarding order, and anyone who wanted to do so could now buy 24 tins of condensed milk, and if you bought the Nestlé brand you would be buying the product that was richest in cream, and was best for infants, children and individuals. The inference was that at 1s 1d (5.4p) it was a bargain. Countesthorpe was heavily dependent on the hosiery industry for its employment, with three factories, as well as the service businesses, bakers, market gardens, shops and pubs, which with the churches formed the key focus for social events, as well as farms and smallholdings that would be expected in what was still a village community. There was also a tradition of ‘outworking’, with baskets of stockings being taken to women to finish at home. The social side was catered for with a church, two chapels, four pubs and, for the more sophisticated drinker, a Conservative Club where much of the important business of the village was carried out. The church was 7